24-Hour Party People

Abstract

Much of the rhetoric surrounding High Streets focuses on their importance as daytime spaces of shopping and sociality, with relatively little attention given to its use after dark. For all this, British High Streets have been profoundly shaped in the last couple of decades by the increasing vibrancy of their nighttime offer, with specific licensing reforms encouraging more pubs, clubs, and restaurants to open. As we will see, these venues have created jobs and added a certain vibrancy to the High Street in the evening and at night, but they often exist in conflict with daytime uses, with the transition between the daytime and nighttime often witnessing significant changes in the feel and atmosphere of some local ‘shopping streets’. One general tendency here is for the street to become more dominated by younger people as older ones retreat, and for any semblance of ‘family’ atmosphere to be overwhelmed by an edgier vibe that appears off-putting to those sensitized by media stories of alcohol-fuelled excess, violence and anti-sociality.

Keywords

Local Authority City Centre Binge Drinking High Street Moral Panic

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